Monthly Archives: January 2010

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Thick forests, vast wetlands, deep chasms – this is a wild, inaccessible place that belongs more to myth than reality. Explore the untouched Balkan landscape Sunday at 7 p.m. on Nature and see its wild animals that have all but vanished from the rest of Europe.

A fiercely funny adaptation of Jane Austen’s delightful love story of a young woman whose attempts to play Cupid go disastrously awry on part two of “Emma” at 8 p.m. Sunday on Masterpiece Classic.

The Kodosky Foundation, managed by philanthropists Gail and Jeff Kodosky, have provided $10,000 in funding for KLRU’s INCONTEXT series. KLRU is deeply grateful to the Kodosky’s for this generous gift to further Arts in Central Texas and broaden exposure to all that Austin ahs to offer in artistic expression. This series of specials in 2010 features Choral Arts, Jazz in Austin – which airs Thursday, January 28th at 8:00 PM – and specials on the visual arts in Central Texas, Ballet Austin’s The Bach Project and an exploration of classical guitar and the 2010 International Classical Guitar Conference in June.

Hummingbirds represent one of nature’s most interesting paradoxes — they are the tiniest of birds, yet they qualify as some of the toughest and most energetic creatures on the planet. New knowledge gained from scientists currently making great breakthroughs in hummingbird biology makes this a perfect time to focus on these shimmering, flashing jewels of the natural world. Stunningly beautiful high-definition, high speed footage of hummingbirds in the wild combined with high-tech presentations of their remarkable abilities help us to understand the world of hummingbirds as we never have before.

KLRU’s Producer’s Circle donor group is hosting a member’s breakfast with David Brancaccio, this February. David Brancaccio is host and senior editor of NOW on PBS, public television’s award-winning newsmagazine of investigative reporting and in-depth interviews. A broadcaster for 33 years, Brancaccio worked alongside the legendary journalist Bill Moyers at NOW, before flying solo beginning in 2005. His journalism has won the three top awards in broadcasting: the George Foster Peabody, the duPont-Columbia, and the Emmy.

KLRU was recently awarded a sponsorship by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to produce a public media “unconference” in Austin in 2010. The meeting is expected to attract community organizers, bloggers, tech developers and public media staffers and will be called PublicMediaCamp Austin. KLRU’s Director of Development, Shane Guiter will organize the event on behalf of the station.

In addition to providing seed funding, CPB paid for KLRU to attend the original PublicMediaCamp in Washington, D.C. in October. Over two days, more than 250 attendees discussed ways that technology can be used to strengthen the relationship between local communities and their PBS/NPR stations. Attendees were encouraged to upload session presentations, notes, images and videos to the PubCamp’s wiki for future reference.

So what is an unconference? According to this post at the PBS Media Shift blog, the format creates a “blank slate” for attendees to identify shared issues, projects and learning opportunities.

Unique to North America, the bald eagle is the continent’s most recognizable aerial predator, yet Nature shows that even in the best of times it’s a surprisingly tough struggle to maintain a home and raise chicks until they can hunt on their own. See it Sunday at 7 p.m.

KLRU will be taping several episodes of Texas Monthly Talks in February. Come be part of the live studio audience for this award winning statewide series. Each taping features an interview with the guest and then a short audience q&a. Please RSVP for each taping you’d like to attend. All tapings take place in KLRU’s Austin City Limits Studio 6A.

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham 2/8 at 2:45 p.m. RSVP HereMeacham’s interests and expertise reach across a broad range of American culture: political history, foreign affairs, the Civil Rights movement and the role of religion in American history and contemporary society. Meacham is in Austin as part of The University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs Center for Politics and Governance Perspectives Series. Taping starts promptly at 2:45 p.m. Doors open at 2 p.m. RSVP Here

David Brancaccio 2/16 at 10:30 a.m.RSVP HereBrancaccio is host and senior editor of NOW on PBS, public television’s award-winning newsmagazine of investigative reporting and in-depth interviews. Among his beats: politics, human rights, national security, the environment, health care, and science policy. Taping starts promptly at 10:30 a.m. Doors open at 10 a.m. RSVP Here

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro 2/17 at 10:15 a.m. RSVP hereCastro took office just eight months ago after taking 56 percent of the vote in a nine-way race. At 35 years old, he’s the youngest mayor in any of the 50 largest U.S. cities but he’s already nine years into a political career that to many seemed almost inevitable. Taping starts promptly at 10:15 a.m. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. RSVP here

Join Evan Smith and KLRU’s Texas Monthly Talks for a conversation with Augie Garrido, head baseball coach for The University of Texas at Austin on Monday, January 25. RSVP here

The Longhorns start their season on February 19 with a number one pre-season ranking and high hopes for the year. Garrido’s record gives fans good reason for big expectations. He has more wins than any other baseball coach in NCAA history, taking teams to the College World Series twelve times and leading five national championship teams.

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW at 7 p.m.
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW visits North Carolina’s Museum of the Cape Fear in Fayetteville, once the site of a U.S. arsenal seized by the Confederacy, to look at some of the weapons made in North Carolina during the Civil War. Highlights include an archive of items related to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1966 visit to St. Mark’s AME Zion Church in Durham; a circa 1800 heirloom Virginia-made table, purported to have ties to Thomas Jefferson; and a pair of circa 1725 chairs, made by New England furniture maker John Gaines, whose value – much diminished because the pieces are refinished – is estimated to be $30,000 to $50,000

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: INFLUENZA 1918 at 8 p.m.
As the nation mobilized for war in the spring of 1918, ailing Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with influenza, a disease about which doctors knew little. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 600,000 people — more than died in all the wars of this century combined — before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

BENJAMIN LATROBE: AMERICA’S FIRST ARCHITECT at 9 p.m.
Noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger hosts this documentary biography of Benjamin Latrobe, the creator of the first uniquely “American” architecture. Latrobe’s tumultuous life was a series of creative triumphs, personal tragedies and constant re-invention. The film features computer-generated animation, interviews with architects and historians and location shooting as Goldberger explores Latrobe’s life, from his early years in England to his immigration to the young republic and his work on such iconic buildings as the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the Baltimore Basilica.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL: A NEW CENTURY, A NEW CALLING at 10 p.m.
This documentary film explores the history and contemporary life of America’s great gothic masterpiece and “House of Prayer for All People.” It was conceived by George Washington’s own architect to sit atop the highest hill in the nation’s capital as a moral reminder to civic leaders. Today, as the Cathedral marks its 100th anniversary, it has also become a spiritual crossroads, a center for prayer and dynamic worship for the most religiously diverse nation on earth.